DNC Chairman: Likelihood of Obama primary challenge ‘virtually nil’

After the “shellacking” the Democratic Party took in the 2010 midterm elections, there was some speculation that President Barack Obama could be vulnerable to a primary challenge for his own party’s nomination in 2012. But that doesn’t appear very likely, at least according to Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine.

On Sunday’s broadcast of CNN’s “State of the Union,” Kaine dismissed the prospects in an interview with show fill-in anchor Ed Henry.

“Ed, I think it’s very unlikely that the president is going to face any kind of a serious primary challenge within the Democratic Party,” Kaine said. “You and I know that you can always get a fringe candidate or somebody to run.”

Kaine didn’t completely rule it out, but he measured the possibility of such a challenge to be “virtually nil.”

“So, you know, could somebody throw in their name?” he continued. “And, yes, it’s possible, but I think the likelihood of any serious challenge to the president is virtually nil. And I think the president’s strong performance and especially the three major accomplishments at the end of the year make it even smaller.”